Important program update
The Family Resource and Training Center wishes to extend a heartfelt thank you to every one of you who has had such a caring heart for the youth we have served through this program for the past 10 years.
Please read the information below outlining how the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare plans to continue its diligent efforts to find permanency for all children in foster care in Idaho.
Please complete inquiries for any youth you are interested in as soon as possible so that we may process your inquiry before our website closes.
July 28, 2026
To Our Community Partners,
The Idaho Department of Health & Welfare has been proud to partner with Eastern Washington University (EWU) and other community partners to recruit adoptive families for Idaho’s children in foster care. Since Idaho’s Wednesday’s Child began over 25 years ago, the landscape of adoption from foster care has changed yet there continues to be a need for child-specific recruitment for youth most in-need of a permanent home. Over the years the department has reorganized how permanency cases are managed to address this need and to achieve timely permanency for children who cannot return home. These changes include permanency workers “teaming” earlier with family services workers and the addition of a Family Find team to help identify previously unknown relatives and connections for our youth in care. Meanwhile, advances in technology and social media have resulted in increased risks related to public profiles causing Idaho and other states to consider the long-term impact to the youth featured.
The Idaho Department of Health & Welfare is in a position to innovate practices for child-specific recruitment while demonstrating fiscal responsibility. With this in mind, the contract for Wednesday’s Child, Waiting Families and intensive recruitment services is ending effective 09/30/2026. These services will be provided through Youth Safety & Permanency team members beginning October 1, 2026. During this transition, the current website for Idaho Wednesday’s Child will be unavailable while an updated website is created for both our waiting children and waiting families. Idaho will continue to use the AdoptUSKids website during the transition to ensure ongoing efforts to achieve permanency for waiting children.
Thank you for your continued support and advocacy on behalf of Idaho’s children.
Thank you,
Jean M. Fisher
This outgoing and energetic boy describes himself as fun, a good kid, and someone that doesn’t like bullying and will always stand up for his friends. Meet Alex! Making friends comes easily to him and he finds joy in just spending time with others. Enjoying a good meal, like Chili Dogs, playing video games, and drawing tattoo art would make for a great day for Alex! He has a great imagination and likes to spend time outside, playing football and basketball. Alex also really likes listening to music by Imagine Dragons and Twenty-One Pilots. An Adoptive Family that shares his love for Christmas would be ideal for Alex. It’s his favorite holiday, because of the gifts, but he also enjoys the family dinners surrounding the holidays. Some of his favorite meals include a family recipe of Lemon Pepper Chicken and Steak with BBQ sauce.
Family is very important to Alex, and he hopes that he can stay closely connected with his older brother. Alex’s permanency team is hoping to find a family where Alex can be the youngest in the home. They are open to out of state families at this time. Alex also needs a two-parent family that would be an advocate for him in school and cheer him on in his dreams of one day working at a hospital! If you think you could provide Alex with the Forever Home he needs, we would love to hear from you. Follow the steps below!
The Idaho Wednesday's Child Program prioritizes the safety and security of children, above all else. In an effort to protect the safety of the youth we serve, our process requires families to possess a current, approved adoption home study. Only families with a current home study can view youth's full profiles with videos and photos and submit inquiries, on the Secure Gallery Page.